Silver Beach

just before the end, you had said i owned you
still naiive, i had been outraged
are you stupid, or silly, or do you think i am?
in which case you really really must be!
before my, then legendary, temper flared,
i forgot to check the expiry date

the first time i saw you, i knew
as you rose, like the girl on the half-shell
out of a sea of men. i knew.
my time had come
my nemesis:
welcome.

now the deed is done
i'm a little proud of how graceful i fall
see, how neatly it conspires to be done?
no begging, bile, bitterness, or tears.
yet i make my gestures,
cur you my deepest blood.

now i draw the curtains of causal politeness.
a feather-handed touch.
and i wait for the poison to spread
here alone by the silver beach
where else would i have had it end?
life and death both beautiful.

there is no home, or i would have longed for it
my heart, in this too, was broken and scattered in the winds by time
and pieces fell in so many lands: each i love truely
but broken, none could i completely. maybe the fault was mine
in my lustful itchy gypsy feet. in roving nomad ambitious eyes.
never satisfied.

is this a sin, for those who aspire to strength?
dreaming of a completelness not found within?
of a something, i know not what
beyond the words, beyond the masks, beyond the games
but then what of the blue feather?
was that, then, just a dream?

29 comments:

  1. Wow! How can you write so well. I don't feel like writing anymore. Everything that I'd want to say, you seem to write on it sometime or the other.

    Specially liked :-

    "just before the end, you had said i owned you
    still naiive, i had been outraged"


    and :-

    "is this a sin, for those who aspire to strength?
    dreaming of a completelness not found within?"

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  2. there is no home, or i would have longed for it

    I could quote more and more lines from that but that's not the point.
    You really write beautifully...and just the right nostalgia..made me think of my silver beach :) Thanks..

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  3. Prometheus, thank you! How? Quite by accident :D

    "Everything that I'd want to say" ... like what?

    Thank you!

    :)

    LostLittleGirl, thank you :)
    and so many shades of nostalgia to choose from, no?

    Tell us about your silver beach sometime ...

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  4. I read this five times.
    the expiry date part. the waiting part, the inevitable moroph to bile and bitterness. thirsting to a completion not found within.

    you surprise me, ricer.
    thanks.

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  5. I am glad you liked it. I didnt see any bitterness when I wrote it or read it ... but thats why I say poetry can be so differently interprettd by everyone :)

    The expiry date part made me laugh, when it came to my mind first. It was kind of funny :D

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  6. ya! i just read it again :) i didnt see bitterness. more of a floating in the sea and being glad to be dying kind of feeling (yes i was always a bit in awe of him :D)

    I dunno. But no bitterness. Gladness. Neutral-ness. Matter-of-fact-ness. If your dying - whats there to be bitter about! Isnt it the awesome grand finale - the graduation ball?

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  7. Now I have to read it FIVE times again... :))
    yes, you do have a point. like a " good morning, what a lovely day!" conversation. surface.

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  8. “Poetry is to prose what dancing is to walking.” - John Wain. :)

    NO analysis required. Brilliant as usual...

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  9. Hi,Ricercar..nice going,as always..a 'smile' at the 'forgot to check the expiry date' part.Quite a 'dream' of a poem.

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  10. Austere, good good. Wish you had to pay for each read ;)

    lol. just kidding. (now there you could have seen bitterness - but you wont!)

    Dont worry too much about the interpretation. I had my own thoughts while making this piece, you will have your's while reading it. And the twain shall never meet :)

    Phatichar, OMG! I belive thats the most tragic and silly thing I have heard ever on this blog! lol. No offence Ram. Talking about what you said, and not you, remember :)

    AmitL, thank you sweetie :)

    Musings, I am glad you iked it - thank you :)

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  11. i hope that the post above this is not some kind of goodbye?
    too good to leave blogging.

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  12. then protect me from "the consolers"?
    http://recerche.blogspot.com/2007/05/random-thoughts-might-go-into-dolly-at.html

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  13. Silver Beach :) Ah!! Dont know if you mean the same one but I've had some great experiences there.

    And I dont want to repeat but appreciate I must. Your writing is yum

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  14. White Magpie, I guess we all have our own Silver Beach :)

    You are most welcome to repeat - this stuff I dont get tired of hearing :D

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  15. I didn't get the last two lines... :-( What blue feather?

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  16. it's a reference (after a fashion) to bach's illusions, and the theory in it. actually I havent read it in a few years now, dont even rememeber the details too well

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  17. thank you.... n might i say... right back at you...:)... n i loved that book too... it was simply brilliant... looking forward to ur next post....:)

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  18. And only Prero can outdo Prero. I've read this at least five times. Tells me something new each time :)

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  19. http://www.abovethelaw.com/images/entries/foot%20in%20mouth.gif

    RB

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  20. I love the gritty, itchy tone. You're a master of darkness. I really want to rid myself of causal politeness too. I'd be lying if I said that I can connect with the whole poem, but some of the lines really touch a chord, a raw nerve. Wow!

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  21. me, thanks :) yes I always loved that book too - read it a million times and still go back to it every now and then - it's one of the bibles :)

    Dreamcatcher, thanks love. I have linked to one of your old posts from my hall of fame post - I hope you dont mind.

    RB, me too :D

    Sayak, Thanks. I I love that description!

    And I love "master of darkness" - yipee! Thanks - that might just lure me back :D

    The problem with the 'ridding of causal politeness' is that it beomes a pain the minute you are not anonymous, sometimes. And I find it so hard to maintain anonymity!

    So which parts did you connect with?

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  22. beautiful! especially the last verse.

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  23. The last three paras (or is it verses? or stanzas?) essentially. You can't take any of the lines in isolation, the structure would just fall. The first three paras are perhaps personal reflections of something very personal to you... that's what I felt, at least. The last three paras about thoughts on the past, about belonging, and essentially knowing things about yourself that only you may know, even if what you know is just a question... I could really connect with that.

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  24. Mystic Rose, Thank you :)

    Sayak, yes I guess we could break it up into the first three paragraphs and the second three paragraphs. Or maybe I would break it into the first two and the next three and the last one. :)

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  25. Read this for the nth time today from the day you posted. Its brilliant. But somehow I feel something is disconnected between the last and the one before the last verses (not a couplet this time, heh!) as if there is a verse missing!

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